Galaxy Note 5 vs LG V10 comparison

Who would win a fight between a bear and a shark? We have no idea, but we do know who’d win in a fight between a Galaxy Note 5 and an LG V10. Discover the winning flagship phone below in our Galaxy Note 5 vs LG V10 comparison.

Lowest price: Samsung Galaxy Note 5

Lowest price: LG V10

Galaxy Note 5 vs LG V10: design and build quality

Where previous Galaxy Notes were rather bland and plasticky, the Galaxy Note 5 is sleek and stylish. The combination of an aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass works well, and the rounded rear edges make it look and feel thinner than it is. The LG’s good looking too, with a stainless steel edge and a screen-to-body ratio of 70.8 percent, but the polycarbonate back can’t help but feel cheap compared with the smooth metal of the Note.

The Note has another trick up its sleeve, and by “trick” we mean “stylus”: the S Pen, which enables you to scribble notes, annotate images and put it in the wrong way and cause massive damage to your device. Hurrah for styli!

Galaxy Note 5 vs LG V10: display

The Note 5’s superpowers come from its superb screen. It’s a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED with QHD resolution, delivering 2,560 x 1,440 pixels at 518 ppi. It’s quite simply one of the best displays ever put into a mobile device.

The V10 display is pretty good too, offering the same resolution in the same screen size, but while LG displays are pretty good the IPS LCD technology doesn’t have the same range as a Super AMOLED. Then again, you might like the V10’s second display, a little screen immediately above the main display that you can use to access shortcut icons. It’s an interesting idea but the placement is terrible if you’d rather use your phone one-handed. Is it enough to compensate for the AMOLED’s superior brightness and color? Not for us, it isn’t.

Galaxy Note 5 vs LG V10: processor and storage

The Note 5 has a quad-core Exynos 7420 clocked at 2.1 GHz, 4 GB of RAM and either 32 GB or 64 GB of internal storage. There’s no microSD slot for adding any more.

The LG V10 packs a Snapdragon 808 with six cores at a clock speed of 1.82 GHz, the Adreno 418 GPU and 4 GB of RAM. There is 64 GB of internal storage and a microSD slot for added expansion. It’s not as fast as the Samsung, but it can store more stuff.

Galaxy Note 5 vs LG V10: camera

The Note 5 has a 5 MP selfie shooter and a 16 MP main camera. The main camera provides lots of manual controls but the colors can be a little artificial looking – something of a trend among Samsung devices – and while it’s a very good sensor, rivals are catching up fast.

The LG’s camera is a 16 MP shooter, with 5 MP for selfies on the front. That 5 MP is produced by two lenses, giving you the ability to change the focal width; if you’re taking a shot of just you you’ll go for a smaller focal width, and if you’re doing a group selfie you’ll choose the wider option. It’s clever stuff, but the main event is the rear camera: it’s good for 4K video at 60 fps and has stacks of options for useful things such as canceling wind noise. It’s a great camera if you like to have total control over your photography. On balance, we think we’d rather shoot with the LG.

Galaxy Note 5 vs LG V10: software

The Note 5 shipped with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, and while an update to Marshmallow is scheduled it hasn’t quite arrived yet: it’s expected within weeks. As always Samsung has added its own TouchWiz UI and apps to stock Android, but by Samsung standards it’s been fairly restrained this time round: Samsung has thankfully stopped stuffing its devices with all kinds of unnecessary bloat.

The LG shipped with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, although the promised 2015 Marshmallow update didn’t happen and hasn’t thus far into 2016 either. Like Samsung, LG has calmed down on the pre-installed apps front, and hasn’t used up all your storage with apps you’ll never use.

Galaxy Note 5 vs LG V10: battery

Galaxy fans booed when they discovered that the Note 5 didn’t have a removable battery, and booed again when they found out that the battery was smaller than the Note 4's: 3,000 mAh compared with 3,220 mAh. It’s more than adequate for even the most demanding days, however, as is the identically specced LG’s battery, which is also 3,000 mAh.

However, in the real world the Samsung’s more efficient processor means it’ll last longer – but unlike the Samsung, when the battery in the LG does die, you can take it out and pop in another one.

Readers' favorite comments

I have had many phones and the V10 beats the crap out of my last phone Samsung Galaxy S5. I choose this over the Note 5 because of the storage possibly. The display is nice out in bright light and the phone does not lag. Happy with with this phone.

22 comments

Samsung Note 5 is a undebatably better phone. Period. It has some weak points like the non-removable battery and no SD slot. But that is easily fixable with a Power case and SD extender. Or even better, cases like I-blades(www.iblades.com), Zerolemon or Mopphie :)

Our company has just switched from Verizon to T-Mobile. During that transition I was asked to test their network and chose the Note 5 to take on a trip from DC to Florida. Using Ookla's Speedtest, the Note 5 gave stellar results - easily besting everything my Note 4 did. Download Speed for the internet often maxed-out at 50Mbps vs barely getting 5Mbps with the Note 4.

After the test, I selected the LG V10. I do love the size, screen, removable battery, etc. But the download tests with Speedtest do not return anything near the performance of the Note 5. It often gets 5Mbps to 10Mbps -- but never above.

Possibly, it's an antenna design? Just an observation on my part. Not sure I'd switch back to Note 5. I never used that S Pen, anyway.

I have the v10, my wife has the note 5. I use her phone all the time and have to say the v10 is definitely my favorite. They are both great but out of the box I like the layout of the v10 more. I've tried all of the launchers but Allah's end up back with the stock set up

They are pretty close- If you dont see yourself using the pen get the v10. Having the pen and never using it made me feel bad. Also the bloat on the LG is kind of useful with less a gimmick feel. Camera on the v10 is more than a little better IMO.

Excellent reviews and comments. I am waiting until after the MWC event to see what phone to buy. I want one with an 820QC processor, 64 GB, Quick Charge 3.0, qi wireless charging, a great camera, and a 5.7 hd screen. I'd also like shatterproof display so I won't need a case. while this sounds like pie in the sky, Motorola seems like they are close already to achieving these benchmarks.

Both phone has their own individuality. Extra screen in Samsung Edge is much more interesting than in LG V10. Both have pros & cons but when it comes to innovation, technology Samsung is undisputed champion. It's all about personal choice and requirements that what configuration you want. Comparison is fair.

I have had many phones and the V10 beats the crap out of my last phone Samsung Galaxy S5. I choose this over the Note 5 because of the storage possibly. The display is nice out in bright light and the phone does not lag. Happy with with this phone.

garry marshall wtf u r posting here again...how u can compare lg v10 with note5.......note 5 will outscore this crap in every way.......there is no future in android for lg.....they should focus on screen and other parts

Thank you for your comment. You are absolutely right the LG phone did in fact make one of the best phones of 2015 edging out the competition with there superior build and features. Yes the Note 5 does have a louder external and the v10 has far superior hi fi audiophile grade headphones. The note 5 did come in close with its point and click camera but did in fact come up short against the V10 with its superior color spectrum sensor laser autofocus ois and full manual control camera. And yes while the Note 5 did score higher in a consumer made benchmark test yet it day to day use and side by side tests we can clearly see the LG v10 run neck in neck with the Note 5 and in the long run the v10 did in fact pull far ahead in ram management and all around fluidity of usage. In the battery department the Note 5 seemed stellar opting to get 6 or more hours of sot with moderate to heavy usage. In the first few weeks the v10 did come up short. Getting a less than stellar 3 hours of sot. But after several full charging cycles the v10 lithium ion True new battery seemed to continue to improve with the phone getting up to 5.5 to 6 hours of sot with moderate to heavy usage. Along side the fact LG V10 can have a extra swappable battery to double the phones battery life eliminating a need to ever plug your phone in again. In the drop tests the Note 5 and its beautiful design did less than good with its large thin sheets of glass easily shattering in moderate to low drops. The v10 with its rugged and tough yet very attractive looking phone handled over 50 drops and the only way the phone was able to show any signs of cracking was through a drop of the v10 being thrown over 15 feet in the air. Looks like if you want to enjoy the looks of that note 5 it better remain in a case until it's safe to pull out and enjoy that mirror finish. Now while the public does in fact like amoled displays with there bright and vivid colors. The super amoled displays tend to get very saturated and tend to lean toward more unrealistic colors. LG knew this and despite making the best oled displays to ever be on a television. LG has opted to remain as true to life with there accurate colors and the darkest representation of black ever produced in an ips display with there quantum technology. And finally after a several months of complaints from there consumer's the Note 5 has added a 128gb variant to try and appease there users and rumor had it the S7 and Note 6 will again use micro sd expansion to give power users a more enjoyable experience. While with LG not only have they certified and partnered with San Disk to give LG users the most fluid experience of transfering files and storing there 4k videos and raw file pictures. LG was the first company to offer the first true 200gb San Disk micro as free on there V10 phone. I am truly excited to see what 2016 has in store for both phone lines.

I agree 100% I went to verizon to get a note 5 to be honest I wasn't thatttt impressed with any new phones at the time..I saw the v10 in store and played with it and I fell for it hard. Took a leap and I'm so glad I did the camera, the headphone audio, and build quality is all superb... Not to mention how useful that second screen actually turned out to be and the display geez I dnt get what all these oled oled rage is about this quantum ips is gorgeous and crispyyyy..and the viewing angles and direct light readability are as good as any amoled I've seen it's actually hard for me to pick one of the other after having this display for a few weeks. Dare I say I prefer the ips. I'm also getting 5 1/2 hrs soc in average and the 808 has yet to hiccup once. Samsung makes a great phone but I'm not gonna say the note 5 is the better phone when day to day the v10 is giving me a better experience than any Samsung I've had..dnt care for the lg ui but threw nova launcher on it and it's perfect and no lagging..great phone no one should hesitate to buy it